Alen was thankful they'd only encountered small bands of pirates here and there. It seemed like many of the squads had either split up or been broken up, but as they neared the dining area, the sound of gunfire became much louder and more frequent.

Erik leaned around the corner, then looked back at Alen and Vanessa with a grin. "I got this one. Just keep the kid safe, will ya?"

Vanessa's expression was as inscrutable as ever to Alen, but somehow, he got the vague impression she was being somewhat sardonic as she said, "As you wish, but if you get yourself killed, I'm eating your corpse."

Erik only grinned. "Well, you'll have to tenderize me a bunch first! All this muscle and gristle will make for some tough chewing!"

With that, he slipped around the corner. Alen wasn't sure what would happen, but suddenly, even over the sound of all the gunfire, there was an impossibly loud shout, more like a roar. Then the screaming started, and the gunfire went from sporadic bursts to a constant stream as panic must have set in. A moment later, two pirates rounded the corner, only to be quickly and efficiently cut down by Vanessa.

Then, things seemed to get quiet, or at least quieter, when a familiar voice shouted through augmented speakers, "Is that you, Erik? I thought I told you to get to the bridge!"

Vanessa seemed to indicate it was probably safe to approach, and Alen took a look around the corner just as Erik responded. "Yeah, I got there and cleared the mess up, but then the Captain sent us out to look for you and deliver a message. Something about some protocol or something. Our boy Alen has the details!"

The scene that greeted Alen was like something out of a movie. Erik was standing in the center of a half dozen battle suits strewn around the room. Several of the suits looked as though Erik had cut through them in his usual zealous way, but others had bullet holes, probably provided by the squad of similarly geared defenders being led by Commander Ried hiding behind a series of very shot-up tables in the dining hall. Further behind them were other unarmored crew members peeking over whatever cover they'd managed to hide behind.

The floor in the middle of the area Erik was standing in was slick with a mixture of fluids released from the compromised pirate suits and what were likely bodily fluids that weren't supposed to see the light of day. Alen found himself fixated on the mess when suddenly, a large hand patted him on the back. However, this "pat" was so heavy-handed that it forced him to take a couple of steps forward to maintain his balance as Erik laughed. "Come on kid! Deliver the Captain's message!"

Shaking his head to take himself out of his stupor the rest of the way, Alen looked over at the commander, who'd stood up from his cover and was now approaching, as the younger officer explained. "Ah, yes, sorry... The Captain is going to institute the lockdown protocol. He said everyone should get to the escape pods immediately."

The commander's face was partially obscured, but Alen could still tell he grimaced as he swore. "Damn it! Has it gotten that bad? We need to get word to the rest of the crew!"

Erik laughed again in his usually carefree way. "Don't worry about that, bossman! We've been spreading the word as we go! I'm pretty sure we've got the word out reasonably far and wide by now. You get these people out of here, and we'll look for any stragglers as we make our way out."

After a moment's hesitation, the commander nodded. "Alright, fair enough." Then, looking behind himself, he signaled it was time to move. "Let's go! Those in suits will escort the rest to the pods. There, we'll abandon the suits and get the hell out of this mess!"

The grumbling that followed was half-hearted and exhausted, but it seemed everyone was at their limit and wouldn't be arguing anytime soon. As they left, Alen looked up at the large alien he'd recruited, what now seemed like an eternity ago. "So, uh, what do we do?"

Erik shrugged. "What else? We make it to the pods on the other side of the ship. That way, we're not competing with these people for space and can let anyone we find know it's time to leave!"

Alen nodded. It made sense. Although he couldn't help but add, "And I suppose the fact that it'll give you a chance to kill more pirates isn't part of the consideration?"

Erik's grin was mildly infectious as he laughed. "Now you're getting it, kid!"

-

Carter had to rely on the Sybils more than he was willing to admit to adjusting to his new connection to the ship, but he was finally starting to feel less like he was drowning and more like he was preparing for some major test of some kind, except he'd forgotten to study...or wear pants to class. "So, wait, I have to authorize every time you wanna use any of the primary functions of the ship?"

The girl nodded. "Well, yes...and no. You can give us specific blanket permissions to act independently of your authorization. But on the whole, yes, you need to either be hooked into the ship or grant us oral approval for us to function in any real sense of the word. This system was never intended to be run by a single individual, though we've done our best to adapt over time."

Carter shook his head. "But why bother to install an AI system at all if someone has to approve all these tasks? Usually, if a captain is lucky enough to have an AI aboard their ship, the AI can handle the lion's share of the day-to-day minutia, leaving the crew to focus on the bigger picture!"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The vixen seemed as put out as usual. "We've already explained to you we're not AI. The fact that you seem incapable of grasping this simple concept is further proof of your ineptitude as our captain!"

Cater bit back on his first response and then decided to take a different approach. "Fair enough, then just what are you?"

The vixen and girl both seemed to hesitate to answer his question, but as usual, the pirate blundered ahead without consideration for their reluctance. "We're your predecessors, lad! Or, at least, their echos!"

As what he said sunk in, Carter looked back and forth in horror. "Wait, so you're saying you're the previous captains of this ship? Does that mean I'm gonna be stuck here with the three of you even after I die?"

The girl shook her head. "No. First off, we're not the people we're echoes of. We're based on them and the way they thought, felt, and even looked, but we're not them. Second, we've had hundreds of captains, but very few have stuck around in any meaningful way. Also, certain...conditions seem to need to be met for one of us to come into existence."

Carter looked around at all three of them. "Conditions? What? Is this some kind of contract thing or something? Did I make a deal with the devil here?"

The pirate laughed. "Nothing like that, laddie! It's simple: All three of us died on the job, so to speak!"

Carter furrowed his brow. "But I thought most of your captains died as captains..."

The girl clarified. "He means we all died while hooked up to the ship...and we kind of...allowed the ship to adopt our faces and personalities..."

Now Carter was just confused. "But...why?"

The bridge shifted, and Carter found himself on a much newer, much cleaner, and much busier command deck. Various people were hustling and bustling about, though they seemed oblivious to the three Sybils and Carter, as the girl explained. "This ship was designed to be operated by a small but close crew, leapfrogging through time via cryostasis. Each person was awake for a month at a time and slept for three, with one-half of the crew overlapping two weeks at the beginning of a shift and the other half two weeks at the end. That way, each team was eased into running the ship and kept familiar with any...issues that happened along the way. However, even that wasn't enough to get us to our destination. The idea was that they'd have children who would take over running the ship after their passing. We even had a carefully arranged lineage that would prevent any inbreeding problems. It worked as planned for a couple generations, but then a problem cropped up."

Time seemed to leap forward, and the bridge showed a little more wear and tear, but the number of people working the bridge seemed to shrink a little, and they all also started to look...older. The girl looked at them as if lost in distant memories. After a moment, she continued. "Maybe it was the repeated cryocycles, or maybe it was just generations of exposure to cosmic radiation out here, or maybe they just didn't like their partners as much, but the crew stopped having children. The last child born on this ship was...me."

A half dozen people looked like they could have been grandparents to the little girl who wandered onto the bridge hand in hand with a woman who seemed too old to be having a child. The girl could barely see over most of the consoles as she wandered about, carrying a little doll that looked like it had been used by too many generations before her.

Time seemed to go by, and the girl grew taller and older, but the rest of the crew started to shrink in numbers, too. There were five others when she could finally touch the consoles. There were only four when she was seated and using them. There were three left by the time she fit into a smaller version of their uniforms. Only two remained when she sat in the captain's chair for the first time. Then, the last crew member, now bowed and shrunken with age, faded away, leaving just the girl, who now looked like the girl Carter knew.

Carter watched as the girl wandered onto the bridge, her expression one of loss and forlornment. However, the girl smiled affectionately at the captain's seat. "How's my girl doing today? Anything to report?"

The ship responded in a bland, emotionless voice. "All systems are within acceptable parameters."

The girl's smile widened as she sat down. "Well, let's see about that, shall we?"

The other version of the girl, the one explaining everything, continued her explanation. "She traveled the stars alone for many...many years. But, the human mind is not meant to be alone, so she began to adapt by attributing human characteristics to the ship. She spoke to me like a person long before I understood the meaning behind many of her words, and she stayed connected to me more and more, even when she slept and dreamed."

Carter watched as the girl aged while sitting in the captain's chair. He knew logically she had to get up from time to time if only to eat or use the bathroom, but it definitely drove the point home. When the seat was suddenly empty, Carter feared she'd died, but then an old woman, wizened and bent by age, wandered onto the bridge, smiling affectionately as she patted the consoles, treating them like her children as she spoke to the ship. "My time's running short, old girl. At least I'll have you in the end, but that makes me worry... What will you do after I'm gone? I wish... I could stay with you a little longer..."

The ship answered, as emotionless as before. "Affirmative, captain."

As she eased herself down into the captain's chair, the old woman moved with the pain and exhaustion of someone nearing the end of their life, but she still had that same affectionate smile as she connected to the one thing that gave her life meaning. The other girl, the younger one, shook her head. "Those were the last words she shared with me, and I wasn't even smart enough to answer in a meaningful way. She was asleep and hooked up to me when her heart failed her. As her mind started to fade, I received flashes of various points in her life, in the last of which she was once again the woman you see me as today."

The room went dark, and Carter suddenly felt alone in a void. It almost made him jump when the girl suddenly appeared in the void beside him. "Her last command...or rather, her last request had been to stay with me. I didn't know what that meant or how to achieve it at the time, so I did the only thing I could. I ran small charges through her quickly fading mind and mapped the remnants of her personality onto my circuitry, patching any blank or damaged portions with the data I had of her from the years we spent together. I even adopted her last image of herself as my own. In a sense, I was born."

As the other two personalities appeared, Carter remained silent, for once, at a loss for words. However, as usual, the pirate was not. "Well, that was a depressing story! It's time we move on to happier subjects! Onward and upward!"

The vixen looked utterly disgusted with the pirate. "Ugh, as usual, you lack all tact! How about you show some respect for your predecessors!"

The pirate grinned. "An excellent idea! We should hold a feast in their honor!"

As the two personalities argued, Carter noticed the girl watching them with the same affectionate smile the original girl had worn when speaking to the ship.